Life

This has been an interesting winter. After a heavy snowfall and some bitterly cold temperatures in December, the weather has been very mild. In fact, during the last two weeks, we had eight or 10 days with temperatures in the sixties (15-20 C). That set some records, brought some birds back a little early, and prompted some trees to begin budding.

Doug and I both had a touch of the flu, but nothing like other folks we know. Then Doug came down with another case of chronic hiccups, probably brought on by the coughing he'd been doing. After eight days, several trips to doctors, and trying various medicines, we finally resorted to going to the hospital emergency room. There, they were able to give him some more powerful medicine intravenously, and it cured him. That was 10 days ago and so far, so good.

In the midst of all that, I had to have some dental work done, involving the removal of four crowns (numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10), drilling out the decay in each of the teeth under the crowns, then fitting me with temporary crowns until the permanent ones could be installed on February 28.

Monday, as we were walking a neighborhood and passing out the John/Romans booklets that I mentioned in the last post, we knocked on the door of a pastor of another church. He and his wife invited us in and introduced us to another man and two women who were apparently staying with them for a time. As we talked, he invited us to attend a presentation on church safety at their church on Tuesday, the 28th, dealing with how churches can prepare for some of the dangers, both natural (as in killer storms) and criminal (as in killer humans), that are becoming so prevalent these days. Doug told him we wouldn't be able to go because I was getting new teeth that day. One of the lady guests said, "She'll be able to take a bite out of crime." Cracked me up.

It won't be long now until our favorite ice cream shop opens for the season.

Hope you've been having a good winter, whether in spite of or because of the weather. Spring is on the way.

This 'N That

About a year ago, Doug and I began walking neighborhoods in the small town where we attend church, handing out booklets that contain the complete Gospel of John and the complete book of Romans, in an attempt to get at least a portion of scripture into the hands of anyone who is interested in having it. Our motivation is the biblical promise that God's word shall not return void, "...but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)

Last Tuesday, we decided to drive the three hours or so to Bearing Precious Seed, the publisher of these booklets, to pick up another order and to tour their printing operation. We were amazed at the size and scope of their ministry.

Bearing Precious Seed Printing Facility

Tyler spent about an hour and a half with Doug and me, giving us a thorough tour.

A small museum displaying equipment used in the beginning.

BPS ministries include what they call Seedline, which is a is a means for the local church to have hands on involvement with Bible publishing for the world. This is accomplished by taking the printed page and collating it, folding the covers, putting the Scripture in the cover, stapling it, cutting the book and boxing them for the Field.

FirstBible International is another of their ministries, involving translating and publishing Bibles to provide a Bibleless people group with a reliable first Bible. Once that goal is accomplished, the next desire is to reproduce that Bible so that each individual within that people group has his first Bible.

It was a great visit and worth every minute of the travel time. As an extra bonus, we were able to work in a visit with my cousin-in-law, Anita, on our way back home.

Now, for a little change of pace, the following pictures are from today:

It was cold this morning, and this rabbit had managed to create a warm nest of leaves.

The rabbit pictured above was in the back yard this morning, having burrowed into a pile of leaves under a tree. Doug saw the dark spot and got the binoculars to see what it was. It looked as if the critter had even managed to throw some leaves on top of himself as a sort of blanket. Of course, my eyes aren’t as good as Doug’s, even with the binoculars. So I got my camera out and took some pictures of the mystery critter, then enlarged them on the camera’s LCD screen, to see what it was. It did have a face like a rabbit, but the ears looked more like a squirrel. So I told Doug I thought it was a squabbit. When I got the photos downloaded to the computer, though, it was obvious that it was a rabbit.

And, now, one last photo from today...a sunset shot taken from the moving car as we drove to church tonight for the evening Bible study:

You may have noticed that my posting has slowed to a crawl lately. I think the winter doldrums have hit me harder than usual this year. But it's February, after all. The end is in sight. And the sun shone beautifully today.